Tell Butlin’s what you would change about swimming pool changing rooms - £300 voucher prize draw! NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Butlin's is redesigning one of its swimming pools and needs your help to make it as family-friendly as possible. In particular Butlin’s wants your help to understand what it’s like as a parent using a swimming pool changing room – and your input will genuinely help inform the new design and build on resort.

Why the changing room? Butlin’s have done research which shows that most parents love going swimming with their children – until they get to the changing room. From the wet floor, the often-freezing temperature, the small cubicles not suitable for a family to the fact you can never get your child dry – there’s a lot to be desired! Which is why Butlin’s wants the opinion of Mumsnetters to identify the biggest issues you face – and your ideas on how to solve them.

So two important questions:

What do you find particularly frustrating when using changing rooms at the swimming pool?

In an ideal world, can you think of anything which would make your life easier and solve these problems?

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 John Lewis voucher!

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

Ive started taking my 8 month old regularly swimming. What is most annoying is that whilst trying to stuff a big bag into the locker, I find this difficult to do whilst holding a small baby. I think that they should supply static chairs - kind of like a baby walker chair that I can pop baby in whilst I do what I have to do. Thank you

Slip resistant floor tiles (rated r10).
Larger lockers.
Warm changing areas.
Enough family change cubicles in a specific area with playpen and change tables, etc.
Perhaps a changing village type space is best with designated male/female showers & wcs.
I find trapping my highly mobile and curious toddler in a corner of a bench an alternative to cubicles but not ideal.
Warm showers.
I used to redesign a lot of pool changing rooms before becoming a SAHM. From David Lloyd type clubs to local authority pools.
Problems with many of the ideas suggested are:
Some people like to take things that aren't bolted down like hairdryers, etc. So a proper hairdryer needs to be wired directly into the wall rather than merely plugged in.
Lockers can sometimes be claimed permanently by regular users who take the keys home etc. A master key with regular locker checks is one solution.
Pushchair and shoe area outside changing/pool areas to keep floors cleaner.
Regular cleaning is essential. Almost hourly if very busy.
The falls to drains need to be 1:50.
Showers that are more complicated than the push button type seem to be a magnet for vandals which is a shame. Shower pressure also needs to be adequate and can be solved quite easily.
The dirty/clean side, walk through cubicles are a great idea.
Oh yeah and a changing places disabled changing room should be included or at least decent size disabled changing cubicles etc.
(Want me to draw up some plans with finishes for you?)

Clean floors. Individual cubicals with separate shower within them. So private area for families to shower and change. Warm changing rooms also a must!

Somewhere I can change my opposite sex nearly adult child with learning disabilites. So if changing rooms are single sex, mixed disabled cubicles at the very least - and enough of them as he doesn't do waiting....

That's all by the way - access - anything else is just fluff.

We've been swimming today I have a 15 week old and a 15 month old.

I'd like almost a baby bath by the showers but attached to the wall where you can wash your baby without having to spray them with the shower.

I'd also like a changing mat pull down like a changing station in the cubicals. The majority should have them in if your a single person it's a shelf and if your mum/dad with baby it's a safe area to put baby if your dressing.

Dry floors are a must

Also a bench or hooks by the pool to leave your towel nothing worse than getting small children out waiting for a shower and then being cold.

Good lighting and music in the changing rooms.

Higher locks

Somewhere to store baby floats and jackets while getting dressed almost like a big pen or something.

Clean towels I'd happily pay a pound per towel to save dragging them about.

Large family cubicals that are kept warm and clean. A pull down changing table and nappy bin for sorting out the little ones, and then a travel cot to sit them in while you get ready.
Hooks in the cubicals for hanging towels are essential to keep dry.

It's the floors, the floors are gross! I don't know how you keep them dry but if you could I would be really happy! Also yes to spinny costume dryer and hooks - hooks everywhere, more hooks than you think anyone could ever use!

I find it frustrating that you can neverget dry properly and that the cubicles are not big enough.

Wha I would like to see would be a chair attatched to the back of the door to put baby in a desposable swim nappy dispenser plus larger rooms with more nappy chang facilities. Also under ground heating and more hairdryers.

I would like to see the following in changing rooms:

decent drainage so you don't get pools of cold water on the floor
shelves in the changing rooms
seats that pull down and you can sit your child on
more family sized cubicles - always needed on holiday parks!
hooks on the wall as well as the back of the door
better lighting
raise the bolts on the door so that you child can't expose you naked to the rest of the changing room
larger lockers as you cant always get two bags in them
shoe rack outside changing rooms
pushchair storage area outside the changing rooms
in unisex changing rooms - notices requesting swimwear to be kept on in shower, or else provide individual cubicles.

removable shower heads
showers that stay on longer for 5 seconds at a time
hot showers!

The space needs to be big enough to hold 2, 3, 4 people. There needs to be a wet area and a dry area. So often my little one ends up with wet cuffs on his trousers as they drag on the floor whilst I am negotiating his legs into them.

The showers need to be better thermostatically controlled so as not to burn delicate skin, with holders for shampoo etc, towel warmers would be great!

someone in my NCT group conceived in a center parks changing room

TMI

hope that wins me the dosh

I don't mind unisex changing rooms provided there is an adequate provision of family size cubicles sufficient to fit (at least) 2 adults & 2 kids. Benches, hooks and shelves or baskets to keep dry things off a wet floor are helpful. a seat or changing table with a harness to keep toddlers safe in cubicle is good. Play pen also useful tho this would not really be feasible in unisex change areas. Large lockers are a must and keys with good means of fastening/clipping to swimming costumes. Showers with easy to press timer buttons and which actually shower rather than dribble. Cleanliness is vital, nothing more gross than being knee deep in hair and plasters.

More family ones with rules that ONLY families can use them. Heated floors, clean floors, comfortable seats for babies rather than the hard ones.

? Most definitely a warmer environment, most changing rooms are so cold which is not good with little ones.
? Family cubicles that also a suitable, safe area where your baby or babies for those with twins can still see you.
? Somewhere to hang your items and towels that doesnt mean they Re more wet than you are after your shower
? Costume spinner - one piece of equipment that just makes a huge difference to parents, especially to those of us with more than one child
? Family sized lockers..... there is nothing more annoying than having to try and have more than one key strapped to you, or having to find lockers close together during busy times, while your children are already beginning to shake from the cold as they are in the swim gear waiting to get into the pool
? Hairdryer preferably free to use. Now this is another bug bear of mine... I try my best to wrap my children warmly and appropriately especially in what can be very unpredictable weather in the UK and yet if I take the girls swimming there are often times no hairdrying facilities meaning my children go out with wet cold hair, if I was to leave my house like this I am sure I would be called irresponsible and yet I often have to when leaving the pool? And do we really need to pay more???? So we need to remember the money for the locker the so many 50p's for multiple use of the hairdryer and that is after already trying to remember the costumes, towels, armbands, shampoo, shower, gel, extra change of clothes (yes they are always necessary!), swimming nappies, talcom powder (yes i know it is now controversial, but try getting even loose clothing onto a damp child is harder than any Bear Grills challenge!.... did I forget anything oh yes things for me!

? Ideally it would be helpful if men and womens changing rooms were equipped for children equally - we have 4 girls 3 of which are 3 and under, so my partner having at least one with him makes it so much easier but there are even fewer facilities in the male changing room. Dads also take children swimming, some are single dads with no other option making it even harder and more frustrating.

Thank you for reading and here is hoping that we can add Butlins back onto our list :-)

I would find it helpful to have a hairdryer in the individual family dressing cubicle, it makes it so much easier with multiple children.

More pull down changing tables with straps or those little chairs - DD2 can roll but is a long way from sitting. I'm terrified she's going to roll off the free standing change table, so I put her on a towel on the floor which she really doesn't appreciate!

Wide lockers would be fantastic, a full rucksack never fits and the last thing you want with wet children is everything chucked in the locker separately.

Better locker space and design. Imagine that you've got out of the pool, dripping wet with a soggy towel-wrapped young baby in your arms and you need to either be able to set baby down somewhere safe for 10 seconds within arms reach (not on a wet tile floor) while you get bag out, out have locker designed to be really easy to open and get a large rucksack or holdall out with one hand. The locker needs to be wide enough that if you're really organised and put everything in the bag (so you only have one thing to carry to the cubicle) it will fit.

At our local pool the lockers are too small so you end up having to do several trips from the bigger corner cubicles to put everything into the locker stacked on top of each other, all with a baby in one arm - if it's busy I worry about someone nicking something while I'm running back and forward. The alternative is I put it all in the bag and set baby at my feet while I either unpack the holdall into the locker, or shove it in which needs both hands.

the perfect changing rooms for swimming for us a family would be:

• Large Family Sized cubicles, each with a pull down change station, bench, Hooks for towels in.
• Disposable stand on mats as people chuck talc everywhere so having a clean dry area to stand would be great.
• a small bead activity on the wall of each cubicle... once the kids are dry its a nightmare getting yourself dry and dressed so something to keep them occupied just for 5 minutes would be great.
• Family Sized lockers! We always have to get two as they're too small for a family of 4's belongings

Cleaned regularly through day.
Decent size lockers.
Free hair dryers
Decent family size changing

Ps Brean swimming pools were very good

he floors... I always hate he floors! They are wet and slimy and usually have smushed up toilet paper in them. Old Plasters. Sanitary wrappers.... urgh!

In general, they are usually pretty dirty and grimy...

Maybe that's just the pools we frequent?

Clean and dry floors
hooks to hang bags
shower in the corner
those spin dryer thingys
locks that work and are inaccessible to little children
a device that ignites items that have been left by a previous occupant to 'save' the cubicle for when they return from their swim.
Plenty of working, high powered hair dryers
Chicken soup and custard cream vending machines like there were back in the olden days.

Higher up hair dryers. A woman at my local baths always dries her growler in full view of everyone. Awkward.

Ideally, I would want:

• big lockers so the whole family can use just one
• big family changing rooms
• hooks to hang clothes and towels on
• space to put bags down that isn't on the wet (and usually filthy) floor
• non slip surface throughout